Oh Brazil.... 10/24/11

Hey! Everything this past week has been pretty dang good. Rose and Alex, her husband, came to church this week and her husband liked it a lot, but their baptismal date is for this weekend, and we're not so sure about it. They are still not sure they want to, but we're praying hard so we'll see. The only thing that they didn't like was how the sacrament meeting was so irreverent, and I'm not gonna lie, yesterday I almost went up to the pulpit to tell everyone to shut their flippin' mouths. It's frustrating sometimes cause you get everything so perfect and they come and you pray like crazy that it doesn't rain on Sunday morning so they will be willing to come cause they said if it rains they don't want to walk in the rain. So it doesn't rain and they show up and then the members screw up like that. I don't know, we're all pretty mad. We're gonna have a talk with them, but it's all good, what do you do. 

So Adonias, we dropped this week. He stopped smoking, but that was all he ever did. He wouldn't ever do anything else we told him, and just had no desire, so we had to drop him. It was kind of sad. 

So this last week I have been taking over lessons and starting and doing stuff like that, and not gonna lie, the first couple of times it was a complete failure. I sucked it up, so it's a good thing that it can only get better from there right? ;) So we taught this drunk guy this week and I thought that he was gonna kill us. We were out on his porch teaching him and he was like, "I need to grab something out of my house." And we're like, "We're almost done. Just wait two seconds." And he was all like, "No." And got up and he was like, "I just need 
to grab my 38." And I was freaking out, but he just grabbed a bible and 
we left. I'm sure he doesn't remember a thing we said to him ha ha. Then we found some other people this week who are pretty good. We're gonna go back this week and see if they kept our invites, so we'll see. Tell Rusten good work on the talk. I'm sure it was flippin' amazing, and thanks for sending a package! Love you. ;)Wow you are just a working machine in this potato harvesting deal, aren't you? haha.

Oh, one thing before I forget. The way we talk on Christmas is through Skype, so you will have to create an account or something. So this week there isn't gonna be any pictures, sorry. Last night we loaded up and came to São Mateus to come to this turtle farm thing that we're gonna do today and so I don't have my cord to plug into my computer, but next week I will for sure. 

So last night we went to the sacrament meeting of the branch in our area which is at 5 at night and it was legit. It was on top of this lady's house and it was all open and everything super cool. I will send pics next week for sure. Oh I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday for the first time on the mission. That was cool.

Well there are a lot of fruit and cool things like that. If you came here you would think that it is a city, but it is farm land to them. Where we live it's funny the reaction I get when I tell them how many people are in our city. They honestly can not fathom that, it is funny. There is not really any crazy animals that I have seen yet. No monkeys, but they say there are close by. There is a lake though that has crocs in it, so that is super cool. And yes, I eat a lot of mangoes and mango juice. It is so good! They have like 17 different types of mangoes. It is sweet.Well thanks for the support and the email. Wish me luck this week and 

pray for Rose and Alex please. They need the help. Love you guys so much!
Love, Elder Furrows

Many Adventures 10/10/11

Wow! That is so crazy about the doctor thing. That is such a miracle for sure! We are so blessed by the lord each and every day, and we do so much to not deserve the blessings, but yet he still sends them. It amazes me; the Lords love for us. 

Well we had to move it back because he didn't come to church yesterday, but it is still coming along. His whole family is all members, so we're not ganging up on him. 

That Rusten, I can't believe him. That is the funniest thing I have ever heard in my life. I was just laughing so hard just barley {What he's talking about here is this story (Told by my mom):Wednesday I came home from spud harvest late and there was a nice 4-wheeler in our driveway.  Rusten was asleep so I couldn't ask him about it but the next morning when I asked him he said he found it.  "Oh" I said, "and where did you find it?"  He said, "In the field behind us."  I said, "Rusten that belongs to someone. The farmer was probably discing and didn't have a ride home"  He said, "No, mom it has been there for over a week and never moved. I've watched it everyday so now it is mine." He was so happy about it.  When I insisted that was stealing and that he had to take it back he was so surprised.  He really thought he was entitled to it since no one had been on it for a week.  He was pretty ticked off at me that I would make him take it back until I told him about Angie Robison's 20 year old nephew that is serving jail time because the cops just wouldn't believe that he found the 4 wheeler. 12 year olds are not capable of being home alone after school.  As much as he thinks he is.}. I can't believe that it snowed that much to build a snowman. That is awesome. It's definitely only getting hotter here every day ha ha. Ya I can listen to that CD. The rules in our mission is that on P-days we can listen to anything, as long as it doesn't drive the spirit away, so it should be good, and you can sure send me mo-tab or Disney or any other thing that you would like that is good like that. When you send the package, I forgot to tell you but make sure you send it through USPS cause that is the only one that really works well they say, and the other ones sometimes make the mission home pay charges once they deliver them, and just make sure you write the address correct and they won't tamper with anything. They say you don't really need all the pictures of Jesus and all that stuff like people say you do, but you can do whatever you feel like ha ha. 

Yes I know. I thought that I would never get a Facebook and I'm getting one. It's crazy to me to but I won't have anything to do with it for 2 years still, so it's still like I don't even have one ha ha. I can't believe you're still slaving away out to spud harvest. I'm sure you're loving it though. It sounds like you are at least ha. 

Well everything back here has been really great. So earlier this week Elder Swanson and I were going out to knock doors in this bairro and we saw these lakes so we're like, "lets go check those out real fast." So we're walking over to them and all the sudden this snake jumps out and was almost about to bite me. I was so scared, but then after we went to this lady's house and she is super legit. It was the first time we taught her that day and she was already willing to keep all of the commitments and everything, and I invited her to be baptized on the 29th of this month. It was a little scary. It was the first person I have invited on my mission and I'm pretty sure she will be baptized. I'm hoping, but that was way cool, and then yesterday was the first Fast Sunday and I bore my testimony. I was dang scared and they said that I was beet red the whole time, but I did it anyways, so that was really cool. It's been a really good week this week. We're hoping to find a lot more new people to teach so we can get our teaching pool a lot bigger, but everything is going great. I'm loving the work and loving the people. 

Yesterday we ate lunch at this member's house that was like a ten by ten foot hut. All it had was four walls and we sat on the floor and it so amazing that these people sacrifice so much to just give us one meal. They are truly great people here. Oh ya one last thing, so we have this coconut tree in our back yard and the guy that owns our house said that they are ready, so we asked a kid in our ramo how to get the water out of them, so here is our adventure with that. It was fun, but I do not like coconut water at all ha ha. Well have a great week.  I love you all!

Love Elder Furrows

Starting to Teach Lessons! :) 8/17/11

Well I'm very glad that all is well back home. It is just another week here at the ctm, but I'm loving it more and more every single day that I am here. It is definitely a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, so I'm getting humbled, I would say every 30 seconds or so. ha ha. But it's good for me. The language is tough, but I'm getting it ok. Elder Brown and I taught our first whole lesson in portuguese this week, so that was dang intense! I have come to a realization that I need to grow up and put all my faith in the Lord if I want miracles to start happening because that is what it is going to take. So I'm praying as much as possible and putting a lot of faith in the Lord and putting forth all the effort that I can. I know that it will all work out if I put my faith in Christ. That's one thing that they make sure to teach you here. If you put your faith in Christ, then things will work out. I love it here. The spirit is always so strong and you can always feel it.

We are going to the Campenis Temple next week because they are cleaning Sao Paulo, so that is awesome.

The pic of Cam's wedding looks like it was beautiful. Tell them congrats for me. Oh ya, you are going to Cali! That's so awesome. I hope you guys make it safe and sound.

We got two new kids from Provo in our district. Elders Litchfield and Hill. One is from Oregon and the other is from Cali, and we also got some brazilian roomates. They are flippen cool! It's so fun to talk to them.

Ya that sucks about Anthany. I feel so bad for him. I hope it all works out for him. How is Todd doing? Good to hear about Charlie hope he comes around. My hand is doing so good! Only one week till I can stop wearing my brace. woot woot! I'm so ready to get it off. The doc just looked at it and asked how it felt and I said good and he sent me on my way pretty pain free.

Ya I could definitely find some way to listen to it. You can send them to me out in the field and I would love that. I am half way done with the ctm this Saturday. I'm so ready to get out of here and preach the good word, but I'm really not ready because I need to know a lot more portuguese, but it will come. Well I hope Rory's wedding goes great. Tell them congrats for me.

love,

Elder Furrows